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Bristol postman smells trouble... and uncovers drugs

A DRUG user thought he was onto a winner when he posted cannabis he bought in Amsterdam to his address back home – until a Royal Mail driver caught a whiff of it through the packaging.

Lee Whitelock, 29, from Luckwell Road in Ashton, popped £150 of the class B drug in the post while on holiday in the notoriously relaxed Holland capital.

The self-employed electrician used his girlfriend's name on the delivery address to avoid suspicion.

But after a delivery driver raised alarm bells, the package was tracked to his house where police found further cannabis and cocaine.

Whitelock, who claims to use the drug for pain relief, pleaded guilty to importing and possessing cannabis and possessing cocaine at Bristol Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Whitelock received a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £85 in costs.

Andrea Edwards, prosecuting, said: "On January 6 a delivery driver attended the defendant's home in Luckwell Road intending to deliver a package.

"There was no answer at the door and the driver placed the package on the dashboard. A short while later, he began to smell cannabis as the package heated up because the heating was on in the cabin.

"The driver returned to the depot and opened it when he got back. The postage had been paid in Amsterdam of 13 Euros and inside were five plastic film pots. The pots contained 15.4 grams of cannabis flowering heads in total, with a street value of around £150."

After searching the property, police found two grams of cannabis resin and one gram of cocaine.

Ms Edwards said: "In police interview the defendant said he went on holiday to Amsterdam where he bought too much cannabis and would have had to throw it away.

"In interview he also admitted to possessing the cannabis and cocaine found at his house for personal use."

Mitigating, Lisa Slocombe, said: "Mr Whitelock bought more cannabis than he could use while out in Amsterdam. He knows there was a risk at customs in sending the package back. The reason for him initially using cannabis is that he had an accident at work five years ago where he broke both his wrists. Since then he has used the drug for pain relief as the pain has returned on a number of occasions."

Ms Slocombe added: "He recognises that he now has a problem and wants to do something about it. He has realised he really has to change his situation.

"He has been using cannabis to help with pain relief and is making every effort to stop using the drug."

Presiding Magistrate, Barbara Pinkerton said: "This is a very serious offence. When you post something back with somebody else's name on it is potentially incriminating. For all three offences we are going to impose a community order. You will do unpaid work in the community. I hope you have learned your lesson."

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On one hand, I get the impression that lots of people do it, and the people who get caught are a tiny (but well publicized?) minority. There's no way they can get drug dogs to sniff every package, and it seems that postal workers usually detect weed using their own noses, because there's always some twat who hasn't smell-proofed a bag properly. (I wonder how much weed is actually reported to the police, and how much is quietly disposed of or, better yet, stolen.) So long as people avoid being that twat, they seem to be successful.

On the other hand, once a person's weed is floating through the postal system, anything could happen. It's out of their control. And I really doubt the 'send the weed to a mate's house, not your own' actually counts for much in the end. At best, you'll probably just end up incriminating your friend.

So much to say, and most of it would be viewed as a lesson in smuggling through the mail, so I'll keep my mouth shut lol.

But on a serious point it's the prices that do my head in, even at £150 (for half an ounce , I dont think so) its insane. The court hours...and £85.00 towards costs wont even touch the sides of running a magistrates court, I know magistrates are unsalaried, but theyre not unpaid, they get expenses, compensation for loss of earnings, and it's not just the magistrates (three at each sitting), the other court officials are all salaried, the building upkeep is all paid for, the cleaners, the window washer, not to mention the police who dealt with the original arrest, the CPS, the army of ancillary persons involved in the upkeep of the judical system, all of them drawing a salary. Then theres the cost of supervising the community service hours...it just goes on and on...

All of this cost for what? 15 grams of cannabis? Balance that against the possible income that taxing the legalised sale of cannabis will earn...Surely one day the economic argument for legalising the use of cannabis in the UK will win, even if the moral argument doesnt.